Rainbow Valley

Random House, Inc.Anne Shirley is grown up, has married her beloved Gilbert and now is the mother of six mischievous children.

These boys and girls discover a special place all their own, but they never dream of what will happen when the strangest family moves into an old nearby mansion. The Meredith clan is two boys and two girls, with minister father but no mother -- and a runaway girl named Mary Vance. Soon the Meredith kids join Anne's children in their private hideout to carry out their plans to save Mary from the orphanage, to help the lonely minister find happiness, and to keep a pet rooster from the soup pot. There's always an adventure brewing in the sun-dappled world of Rainbow Valley.

Baker & TaylorThe heroine of "Anne of Green Gables" and her lively children befriend the Meredith youngsters, the four children of a widowed minister seeking a wife

Comment

The seventh book in the Anne of Green Gables series is rather about a group of children, than Anne herself. This book is written warmly about the sweet, touching story of the young friendship of Anne's children and the Merediths, as well as a wistful romance of the minister and the beautiful village woman.
The crowd of eight children, nine including Mary Vance, an orphan found in the Merediths' loft, are colorful characters whose laughter will ring from the pages. The children, of different ages, looks, families, and personalities: the Blythe children-- red-headed, boyish Jem, handsome, dreamy Walter, Nan and Di, twins who look extremely different, and the Meredith children-- black-haired, intelligent Jerry, beautiful, bouncy Faith, small, sweet Una, and bug-lover Carl, and rather insensitive but good-hearted Mary Vance.
Rainbow Valley is full of fun and amusement, as well as delight and love, but along with the joy the sadness, and foreshadowings of the war soon to come. The title is very significant towards the whole book in many ways. The faint, dark chill creeping over the merry rainbow gives the book a mysterious depth as well as poignancy.
"See—there is a great golden palace over there in the sunset," said Walter, pointing. "Look at the shining towers—and the crimson banners streaming from them. Perhaps a conqueror is riding home from battle—and they are hanging them out to do honor to him."
- @StarRead of the Teen Review Board at the Hamilton Public Library

Unlike the previous Anne novel (Anne Of Ingleside), at least this one had an overarching narrative to carry me along on the warm waters of the adventures of good children. Anne again has no voice in this novel and it seems that her character simply does not exist as an adult. Her children and others show us a new generation of growing up, one that is similarly gay to Anne’s except for the tinges of anti-war sentiment.